wiss. Mitarb. Edgar Lissel

Since March 2016 Edgar Lissel heads the arts-based research project Reset the Apparatus!Retrograde Technicity in Artistic Photographic and Cinematic Practices, funded by the Austrian Science Fund’s program for artistic research (PEEK) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Department of Media Theory.

Edgar Lissel works with different types of photography with a conceptual focus. His works are not committed to classic photography, but rather the photographic, and always link back to the roots of this medium, translated into a practical form of photographic research. By focusing on the process of production, his work offers a way of (re-)interrogating the photographic apparatus from the perspective of production. In his interdisciplinary artistic projects in collaboration with microbiologists, archaeologists, and biomolecular engineers he seeks out the field of tension between natural science, archaeology, art history, and artistic work.

After receiving a scholarship from the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo at Casa Baldi he moved to Vienna, where he has lived since 2005. Since the early 1990s Edgar Lissel has been working as a visual artist. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Städelmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, the Kunsthalle Krems, Austria, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Bologna, and the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. His projects are featured in numerous international publications, both artistic and academic, and his work is represented in various public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Victoria & Albert Museum London; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, and the German and Austrian Bundeskunstsammlungen (Federal Art Collections). Edgar Lissel has received several awards for his artistic work, including the 2010 Austrian State Stipend for artistic photography. Since 1998 he has taught art and photography at universities in Austria (2005–2009 University of Applied Arts Vienna; 2012 and 2014 visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna) and Germany (2010 visiting professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen).

Ingeborg Reichle, “Bacteria, Art, and Talbot’s Heirs.” In: Ingeborg Reichle, Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art. With a preface by Robert Zwijnenberg, translated by Gloria Custance. New York: Springer, 2009.